Emerging Markets Mean Huge Opportunity

by Mark Holmes

As I write this editor’s note, the Singapore Airshow is in full swing and Boeing has predicted yet another gargantuan developing market for Asia, estimating a need for 12,820 new airplanes in the region, in a market valued at $1.9 trillion representing 36 percent of the world’s new airplane deliveries over the next 20 years. These are bewildering statistics and great news for avionics technology suppliers, as these emerging markets present enormous growth opportunities and promise to fuel demand surge for new solutions and technology. These massive market expectations coincide serendipitously with Avionics’ decision to be more global than ever.

In the context of this remarkable world growth, two of our features take a look at what might be the next wave of explosive markets, in Brazil and West Africa. We talk to Air Côte d’Ivoire’s CEO René Décurey about the importance of the Ivory Coast having its own airline, the rising demand for regional and domestic travel, and why this kind of news reverberates across the whole avionics eco-system.

We also take a look at the Brazilian market, a country where infrastructure struggles to keep up with demand ahead of the major sporting events to take place in the country over the next three years.

Additionally, in a look back at North America, we examine the evolution of avionics software and, in particular, the challenges facing the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) consortium, an open group backing the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) and the Army’s Program Executive Office (PEO) Aviation.

And in our Product Focus this month, we go through how developments on aircraft connectivity are catapulting antennas technology into a more efficient scenario.

With regional markets in upswing, it is a great time to be part of this market. We invite you to keep your eyes wide-open right along with us on the future — and the arising opportunities — in avionics’ global market.